25 Ways to Conduct a Google Search

Despite Google’s popularity as a search tool, this search engine remains one of the most utilized and yet misunderstood tools for online searches today. Jakob Nielson even informed his readers recently that almost a full quarter of above-average Internet users in a recent survey couldn’t find the Google search engine let alone use it properly. Even savvy users rely on only a few keywords to generate a search. This search method is inefficient and typically generates too many unwanted results.

Google search is a sophisticated tool, and users can generate smaller and more targeted lists with a few simple tricks. You can use this search engine as a calculator, a money converter, a way to find airline flights, a means to remember similar words and more. This article will walk you through twenty-five tips that will help you to utilize Google’s search engine to its full capacity (including an easy-to-understand way to find Google’s search engine in the first place!).

Find Google: The easiest way to find the Google search engine is to type “google.com” into your browser’s address bar:

If you type the address shown above into your address bar and hit “enter,” then a page with this image will show up:

Google Search

The image shown above is your Google search box. Now you can type some words into the form and search through Google to receive search results in a list. Or, you can hit “I’m Feeling Lucky” and allow Google to find a page for you.

Beyond this simple search, there are many ways to find Internet documents, Web sites and more through Google. The way you do this is by using “operators,” much like you would use an operator to find a phone number. However, these operators are words that you use to define a search, and they’re usually followed by a colon.

Just take a look through the list below to learn more:

Explicit Phrase: If you want to find something about open source fanatics, you can type those words into the search box to find results. But, you’ll end up with every Web site known to man that uses one or both of those words within a Web page. if you want to find more specific results, it’s better to use an explicit phrase. In this case, use quotes to wrap around the words like this: “open source fanatics”. When you use the quotes you’ll receive results that use that specific phrase, “open source fanatics.”
Exclusive Phrase: Say that you want to find information about open source fanatics, but you want to avoid anything that smacks of OOXML. Simply type “open source fanatics - OOXML” without the quotes in the search box to receive the tops results for that search. In other words, you’ll use the minus sign before anything you want to exclude from that search.
This OR That: As mentioned in the first tip, when you type a list of words into the Google search box, Google will return all the results that list those words, no matter the order (unless you include quotation marks around them). If you’re looking for any terms to match, then you can use the OR operator (must be capitalized). So, if you want to find results on nuts, specifically almonds (OR almonds), then you would type: nuts OR almonds
Similar Words: If you’re ever for a loss of words, you can try to find those words with a ’similar word’ search. Say that you’re seeking a certain vegetable that’s green and slimy, but you can’t remember the name of that vegetable. Just type the words, “green slimy vegetable” (with quotes), into the search box and use the “~” tilde before the words. So your search would look like this: ~”green slimy vegetable”. Your results will come up okra.
Word Definitions: If you want to look up the meaning of a word, just use the ‘define’ command. If you want to learn the meaning of the word, “procrastinate,” just type: define:procrastinate
Site Search: If a site doesn’t use a built-in search feature, you can search through a site using Google. If you’re looking for open source articles at Fanatic Attack, for example, you would type: “open source” site:www.fanaticattack.com
Title Search: If you want to find an article with a specific title, you can use the operator, ‘intitle’ to find that article. For example, to find an article about women and money, just type this into the Google search box: intitle: “women and money
Find URL: If you can’t remember the URL for any given site, use Google to find that site. For instance, if you want to find any Web site with the word, “Linux,” in the domain name, just type this into the search box: inurl:linux
Document Search: If you want to find a specific file, use Google to find that document with the ‘filetype’ modifier. If you want to find OpenOffice documents that pertain to vacations, then type the following into the Google search box: “vacations” filetype:odt (use doc for Microsoft Word Documents, ppt for PowerPoint, etc.).
Link Search: If you want to find any sites that link to a specific URL, you can use a number of sources. But, one easy way to discover all the site that link, say, to Fanatic Attack, is to type this into the Google search box: link:www.fanaticattack.com (replace fanaticattack.com with any other Web site for other searches).
Cached Pages: To find cached pages to any given Web site, use the ‘cache’ operator (replace google.com with the site you’re seeking): cache:www.google.com
Related Pages: Did you ever wonder what other sites might be related to other pages? One simple way to determine those pages is to use the ‘related’ operator like this: related:www.cnn.com (replace cnn.com with
any other Web domain name). The CNN reference will lead you to other major online news sources.
Information Source: If you’re interested in a topic or a site, you can find a number of links to that site when you use the ‘info’ operator. For instance, if you want to find out more information on Linux, type this into the Google search box: info:www.linux.com. You will learn more about that site’s cached pages, Web pages that are similar to Linux.com, Web pages that link to that site and more.
Safe Search: If you want to research a specific topic that might lead to sites you don’t care to see, then use Google’s ’safesearch’ operator like this: safesearch:breasts. This search will allow you to research the topic while excluding pornographic sites.
Song Lyrics: Ever try to remember the lyrics to a specific song, but you only remember a few words in the title? Use Google to help you remember that song. Say, for instance, that you want to find the lyrics to a song that has the words, “Love” and “Bacon” in the title. Use this to see what you find: “Love * Bacon” lyrics (the asterisk in this case is used as a ‘wildcard’).
Time Frames: Say you want to learn more about the Beatles during 1964 and 1965. Rather than search through thousands of Beatle Web sites and files, you can find results for that specific time frame. Just use two periods between the dates like this: Beatles 1964..1965
Area Code: If you want to look up the area that fits a certain area code, just type in the area code and Google will tell you where that area code belongs, and it will also provide a map of the region covered by that area code.
Phone Numbers: If you want to learn who is listed under a certain phone number, just ask Google. Enter the following into the Google search box like this: phonebook:970-555-1212 (this number is for the Denver area information service, so it won’t work - neither will unlisted numbers).
Calculator: If you need a calculator, just use Google search. Use the asterisk (*) to multiply, the plus sign (+) to add, the minus sign (-) to subtract, and the division sign (/) to divide. So, if you want to multiply five by three, type: 5*3 into Google search box to learn the result.
Stock Market: Enter a valid ticker symbol into the Google search box to see a current chart and data and links to various money market that will take you directly to the page for that business on those sites. For example, if you wanted to learn more about Google, type GOOG (doesn’t need to be capitalized) into the search box.
Money Exchange: You can use several methods in Google search to execute money conversions. The easiest method is to use the countries. So, if you want to know how much 25 Euros translates to in Spain, use this: 25 British money in American money. Goofy, but it works. Or, you can be more sophisticated with this search: 3.5 USD in GBP. Or, you can ask how much a dollar (or more) is worth in another country by using this: $1 in yen money. That second search will take you to a page that shows results from various money converters online. Usually the first result will show the conversion without having to click on the link.
Find Flights: If you want to travel from A to Z, just type in the names of two cities and Google will provide you with links to flights between those cities. For example, type: London New York, and change the dates in the form provided at the top of the page to find more flights.

Other Google Searches

If you want to search deeper beyond the operators and syntaxes described above, then head to Google’s “more” section. First, go to the Google search page as described at the beginning of this article. Then look at the top left of the page, where you’ll see this list: